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AN ARTIST AT NINFA From Esme Howard
In a happy reminder of the old days of Caetani cultural hospitality, Californian artist Gianne de Genevraye, who specialises in gardens, spent two months painting at Ninfa in autumn 2016, immersing herself in the garden’s seasonal and visual challenges and braving the elements. She has an impressive track record of gar-den painting, with exhibitions and residencies in the United States and across Europe. Among her residen-cies in Italy have been the American Academy in Rome, Villa Hanbury (La Mortola), and La Mortella in Ischia. In her first note to me from Ninfa, soon after beginning work, she wrote:

But the garden, the garden. Never have I seen a more exceptional place. I was trying to understand why the work is coming slowly and only with contemplation... The deep spirituality of the place is permeating… I spend about 5 hours a day there, some painting, and a lot of walking to fill my own soul with the spirit of the place. Also an undeniable melancholia, with the shadows of all of the lives that lived there. But especially the ghosts of the great artists that Ada welcomed and who created works of art there. I only hope that I will be worthy of their company...

When I first saw Gianne’s paintings, it struck me that her tonal deli-cacy was reminiscent of Lelia Caetani’s work. The style, evidently, is more modern, impressionistic and intuitive, but it is the product of well-attuned skills and thoughtful preparation. Gianne, as she alludes, is one of few artists in recent times to have been able to follow Ada and Marguerite’s pleasing tradition of allowing the garden to inspire gifted men and women by giving them the opportunity to spend un-hurried time at Ninfa. Gianne plans an exhibition at Sermoneta in July this year during the Music Campus. She is also donating one of her paintings to the Foundation.
For more information about Gianne please go to www.gianne.org

Dogana at Ninfa

146x89cms

Anemone Japonica at Foresteria

116x89cms
The 'Forestiera' is an ancient building in the gardens, used as a guest house. The Director of the Garden, Lauro Marchetti has given me the use of the building as my studio. Just outside was a bed of white Anemone Japonica', at the end of their bloom, planted with iris. This painting is painted life-size, and although it is unfinished, with the flowers not rendered, I'm thinking of leaving it as it is in this photo.

Rose Anemone in Roccia Coletto

Reserved
80x80cms
The Rock Garden "Coletto" is an english flowering garden that gives a multitude of colors continuously from May through October. It is a very small part of the 20 acres. I happened to be walking there and the Director's wife Stella walked by my dressed in exactly these same colors. As it was she that planted this rock garden, I painted her colors that afternoon.

Canna in Autumn in Ninfa

116x81cms
Collection Artist

Living Water at Ninfa

73x116cms
This is the first painting that I did in the garden, the river is intensely mysterious, this is a view looking straight down into it.

Salvia Gigantea

100x70cms

Dogwood and Tulipiana and Ninfa

81x116cms
Collection Foundatione Caetani

Pink Camelias with Sun Ray

120x80cms

Miniature Ornamental Apples

100x50cms
This painting has an abstract feel to the background and tightly rendered subject, although the colors are pushed further than reality. There is a full orchard of these apples, which are unedible and purely decorative. They are autumnal, fascinating, and the downward flowing branches gave the idea of the tall and narrow format.

Pomegranates and Anemones Blue

This painting was exhibited in an Italian Contemporary group show EVENTI 2016 in Sermoneta just after I painted it. The miniature pomagranates are ornamental, and this small compositioni was painted just outside of my studio, on a small mound which made the set up difficult. But it was a calm and bright automn day, which ended by the two gardeners, Antonio and Claudio commenting that this was their favorite. The light space and the blue tones make the piece somehow restful and serene.

Bouquet of Winter Roses for Leila

100x100cms

Dying Rose in Autumn

116x81cms
It is rare for me to paint plants dying as one of my ongoing themes in my work is about evolutive progression in nature and how it mirrors the human experience. But this rose is dying only for the season, gently falling asleep, with a few (non-rendered) roses still clinging to the leafless bush. It will come back to life after being cut back, resting and waiting for the warmer weather. In the background are the blue plants of border lavander, and behind that are the weeping Japanese cherry trees that are changing to brillant yellow gold.

Pryacantha, Salvia, and Ninfa River

130x81cms

Orange Pyracantha after a Rainstorm

92x73cms

Red Roses Cascading off Ruin

Reserved
120x40cms
This unusual format was inspired by a old climbing rose on a ruin adjacent to my studio that had detached from the brick after a windstorm. Antonio, the gardener waited for me to finish the painting before putting it back into its former place. In the background, the orchard starts to turn to autumn gold.